Editor:

Fillmer Hevener’s attempt to correlate the Roanoke shooting of two television reporters and recent police deaths with a lack of belief in Creationism is extremely ludicrous (“A fatal decline for society,” Oct. 9).

He tries to blame the scientific theory of evolution for the independent actions of human beings. 

According to criminologist Manuel Eisner in his paper “Long-Term Historical Trends in Violent Crime,” the rate of violent death in Europe in the Middle Ages, when everyone believed as Hevener does in a literal interpretation of Genesis, was 100 in 100,000.

I would like to remind Hevener that perception does not equal reality.

Despite what the Rasmussen poll says, The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reports that the number of police officers killed on duty peaked in 1973 and the death toll of 126 during 2014 is still more than 50 percent lower than the early 1970s.

If Hevener wants to blame anyone, he should blame the media for its quick and overly thorough reporting of bad news.

James Peca

Farmville